Our Growing Family

At 21:28 on June 23rd 2010, my wife and I’s lives were changed forever. Our first child, Nicolas Larry Jacques Gareau, was born, weighing in at 5 lbs 7 ounces and measuring 18.5 inches. The birth did not at all happen as we thought it would, but the end result was more than worth all the worry. Here’s how it all happened.

On the week of the 14th, at her daily OBGYN appointment, Erin’s doctor was a little worried about the lack of growth in her belly area. He sent her for a second ultrasound in as many weeks to get a better idea of the baby’s size. At the last ultrasound, the baby was in the bottom 10th percentile for acceptable weight (done by measuring various bones and organs), weighing in at 4 lbs 5 ounces.

Two weeks later, on Monday June 21st we went for another ultrasound, at which point they measured him at only 4 lbs 7 ounces. This put the baby in the lower 3 percentile. The ultrasound office tried to get in touch with our OBGYN to see what he wanted us to do. Unable to reach him, they suggested that we go to our hospital to the maternity triage and see what they suggested. Upon arriving, they hooked up my wife to a heartbeat and contraction monitor. After a couple of hours we finally saw a doctor who broke the news to us. We were to come back tomorrow or Wednesday so that they could induce my wife. They suspected that the umbilical cord wasn’t passing enough nutrients and that the baby would have better chances of growing outside of the womb. This took us completely by surprise. Erin wasn’t due for another 3 weeks and we still had some things to do to get ready. Upon our return home that evening, we spent our time packing bags and trying to get ready for our hospital stay.

Early Tuesday morning the hospital called to ask us if we were ready to have a baby and to head on in. We rushed to finish off the packing we had left to do, made a quick stop for a tasty McDonald’s breakfast, ran a couple of quick errands and headed to the Montfort. We got there around 11 and by 11:30 or so we were escorted to the room where we’d be staying for the next 4 days. By mid afternoon they induced Erin for the first time. Her contractions didn’t start until 12 hours later, and they were light and far between. Around 8:30am Tuesday morning they induced her again, but that didn’t bring about any changes. It wasn’t until 6pm when they manually broke her water that everything would start happening.

To be continued…

4 lbs 5 oz. That’s how much our baby weighs right now. Erin’s obstetrician was a little concerned with the lack of growth in her stomach area. She’s been measuring 31 inches for the last few weeks. So he had her go for an ultrasound to make sure the baby is OK and the weight is fine. Though still on the low side, 4lbs 5oz is still within ‘acceptable’ range. It probably just means that we’re going to have a small baby. Funny aside, while the technician was taking measurements with the ultrasound wand, the baby kicked the wand hard.

I haven’t posted pictures of Erin in a while, so here’s a couple that were taken over the last couple of months.

For a few months now Erin and I have been looking at baby name books and websites. I had the good idea of each of us coming up with our own list, comparing them and then making a list of the names that we matched on/both liked. These are the names we’ve come up with so far. This list is far from being final and we expect it to change. These lists are not in any type of order either.

Girl names:

• Emmanuelle
• Genevieve
• Chloe
• Renee
• Alexia
• Christine
• Isabelle
• Samantha
• Kristen
• Sophie
• Audrey
• Melanie
• Gabrielle

Boys names:

• Sebastien
• Philippe
• Nicolas
• Samuel
• Alexis
• Vincent
• Dominic
• Adrien
• Cody
• Eric
• Felix
• Pascal
• Yan
• Kyle
• Remy
• Zackary
• Micah

On a side note, we’re now registered at Toys R Us/Babies R Us under Erin Gareau, and will be registered at Sears shortly. *cough cough hint hint*

A couple of weeks ago Erin was diagnosed with having bronchitis. It was so bad that one night she didn’t sleep at all as she was literally coughing every 10-15 seconds (I didn’t get much sleep that night either). Our family doctor told her to just have some rest, drink plenty of fluids and have our humidifier going. After being off work for 3 days, she was much better. Even though it will probably take up to a month for it to be completely gone, she’s doing much better, only coughing a little late at night.

Erin has started to feel the baby moving and kicking around the same time. She describes it as being a surreal experience.  He/she was especially active when we were at the Sens game last night. Maybe it was the loud noise and the cheering crowd. Or just maybe its his/her hatred of the Leafs that made it punch and kick in disgust  I haven’t been able to feel the baby yet, but it shouldn’t be much longer now.

Today we had what should be our last ultrasound and the last look at our baby until he/she is born. This is what our baby looks like at 19 week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fsJ8LN57Xc (click in case the video above doesn’t launch)

And some pictures from the ultrasound

There’s a few baby related things that has happened since our last post. We started our pre-natal classes last week. There’s 9 or 10 other couples in the class with us. The instructor is pretty funny, so it helps to keep things interesting.

Erin thinks that maybe she’s feeling the baby moving, but she’s not sure. She thinks it could also be gas or slight cramps. This isn’t unusual for a first pregnancy. So maybe our baby is moving

I believe next week we get what should be our final ultrasound (at 20 weeks). So excited to see the baby again But I’m also a bit sad that this is probably the last time we get to see the baby until Erin gives birth. It’s weird to think that we’re pretty much halfway through this pregnancy! Though the birth can’t come soon enough! We’re so excited for July to come around…

On Thursday Erin and I had a scary situation arise. She started bleeding. Since this happened at the end of the day, her OBGYN told her to go to the emergency at the hospital. There was no cramps or no other side effects. After waiting for almost 7 hours and some paperwork mixup, Erin was finally examined. The ultrasound revealed that the baby was alive and kicking (literally) so we could stop worrying that something really bad had happened.

On Friday she spent the day at the same hospital going through some tests to find out the cause of the bleeding. Nothing concrete was found, but she was told to curb strenuous exercises and some other things.

One of the good things about this is that we got to see the baby yet again! Between Thursday and Friday, Erin got to see him/her twice! In total I believe we’ve seen the baby via ultrasound 6 times so far. That’s like 4-5 times more often than the usual pregnancy at this stage. Its amazing to see the growth since the last ultrasound. The next scheduled one is 3-4 weeks, and hopefully that will be it.

On the 13th Erin and I went to her 2nd appointment with her OBGYN. Since she was at the 14 week mark, we got to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. Hearing the heart beating was a surreal and amazing experience, one that I’m not soon to forget. The baby’s heartbeat was a strong 152 bpm. We also got the results from the IPS (Integrated Prenatal Screening) and we were relieved to find out that we were at a low to no risk to have a baby with Down syndrome or neural tube defects like spina bifida.  Now we won’t get to see or hear our baby for another month or so, and if everything goes well that will be it until the baby decides to come out.

Erin had her 3rd ultrasound today and I’m more and more amazed on how rapidly our little bundle of joy is growing. Baby Gareau is now 7.5cm long, has full legs, arms, hands and feet. Its heart rate is a powerful 147 bpm. At 7.5cm long, the July 13th due date is dead on (though we know the chances of an actual birth on the due date is slim). Its so amazing to see such a little miracle, and to see if so full of life. We could see Baby Gareau moving its arms and legs, shifting its body and head around.  We’re just beaming! (I’m using it because we don’t know if its a boy or a girl, and we decided to wait til the birth to find out)

We finally were able to tell all our local family over New Year’s, so now everyone knows. We even started getting a few gifts for the baby already. The pregnancy is progressing nicely. Erin has had no morning sickness and the cravings haven’t started yet. Hopefully the rest of the pregnancy will be as easy.

We finally revealed the news to most of our family members over the last few days. I couldn’t sleep at all Christmas Eve. I was too nervous and excited about telling our families. I think I might of slept a total of 4 hours, and never more than 45 minutes at most at a time. Nevertheless come Christmas morning I was wide awake and raring to go!

We first broke the news to Erin’s parents and sister Christmas morning. We had wrapped a tshirt we got for Erin saying “Future Flames Fan” with arrows pointing to the belly. When her parents unwrapped the gift it took a few seconds for them to realize what it meant. Then there were screams and tears of joy to be had by everyone!

We then revealed the news to my parents and my sister’s family in a very similar manner on Christmas afternoon. My mom and dad unwrapped a similar tshirt except that it said Future Sens Fan on it. My dad started to smile and cry. My mom first asked if it was just a joke (due to me pulling an April Fool’s joke about the subject this past April 1st). Then there were cries, smiles and screams to be had by everyone there too!

Erin called her family out west Christmas evening, letting her grandma, aunt and cousins know the news. Everyone was excited and happy for us.

Today my sister had her annual family brunch, where Erin wore her Future Flames Fan shirt. Everyone was excited and happy about the news.

So now most of our families know about us being pregnant (well Erin is, I just look like I am ). We still have a few select family members that we want to break the news to ourselves, but that won’t happen for another week or so. We’re so glad we were finally able to share this wonderful news with the people we love the most, but by the same token what was our own little secret isn’t a secret anymore, and we’ll miss that a little bit. It sure was an amazing but emotionally draining Christmas for us and now we’re ready for some much needed rest!

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Only one more day until we get to tell our immediate family the big news. We’ve waited for 2 and a half months for this day to come. We’re more excited to share the news than to celebrate Christmas!

I haven’t slept through the night in weeks. I wake up and my legs hurt. I was excited to meet with our doctor on Thursday. The whole time as it was information overload so I didn’t mention things like my neck ache, back pain and no sleep. We got a bunch of pamphlets to read. I go back on the 13th of January and we’ll hear the heartbeat. We also have IPS testing on January 6 too and I’ll have a lot of blood work to do. I bought get some myoflex cream during my lunch at work yesterday.

Unfortunately, not everything is going well outside the pregnancy. My neighbour had a loud party and with all the sleep I need, I can’t. Luc called bylaw on them and one of the “guests”, a guy about 20, peed on the corner of our house. I called down to Luc and I turned on the lights and the guy ran back. Bylaw said it is a “civil matter”. I am too tired to deal with these idiots next door and in July, we will have a baby who will need quiet.

We met with Erin’s new OBGYN this week. No new ultrasounds, and we didn’t get to hear the baby’s heartbeat because its still a little too soon. We get to do that in early January. We did get to see the baby last week though. Erin was in a car accident. Though she wasn’t hurt, it was suggested that she go to the hospital to make sure the baby was OK. After 5 long hours of waiting, we were finally seen by a doctor. She did an ultrasound and not only was the baby OK, we saw it moving for the first time! It had little arms and legs and was moving around! Words can’t describe on how happy we both were to not only see that the baby was OK, but to see it moving for the first time!

Erin should be posting some of her thoughts shortly (*cough* *hint*).

Erin, just shy of the 9 week mark.

Both Erin and I picked up some baby books in the last week. I’ve gone through a book called The Very Best Canadian Baby Name Book and picked out about 60 girls names and 40 or so boys names. Now Erin will go through the same process, we’ll compare our lists and hopefully bring it down to about 10 names or less per gender.

I’ve also recently started reading The Expectant Father. So far its a very interesting book on pregnancy from the view of the father.  It not only covers what the mother is going through, but also what the father is going through as well. Its nice to know that I’m not alone in some of my feelings and concerns, that it happens to most expectant fathers as well.

I’ve finally dusted off my old scanner from storage and have scanned the ultrasound printouts we received last week.

Erin at almost 2 months pregnant.

We went for our first ultrasound today. Seeing the baby for the first time filled both of us with  pure awe, excitement and jubilation. We saw the baby’s heartbeat (135 bpm) on the screen. Measurements showed that the baby was almost 1cm in length (9.5mm) and that Erin was 7 weeks and 2 days along, which was a bit more than we though.

Here’s our baby saying hello for the very first time!

Wow, we’re so excited!!!! We’ve been referred to an OBGYN that works out of the Monfort hospital, and that has offices just across the parking lot from Erin’s work. We’ll be going for another ultrasound at the 11 to 14 week mark.

Here’s a picture of Erin’s belly that I took a few days ago. She wants to document through pictures how big she’s going to grow. We plan on taking pictures on a weekly basis.

In one month we get to announce the news to everyone. In 2 days we get to see our baby for the very first time via an ultrasound. So excited!!